I have been quite a fan of Vogue since I was a teenager, and now that I actually have a house and everything, I also have a Vogue subscription. In 1995, when I was 17 and quite definitely a dancing queen, there were photo spreads of beautiful models, wearing obviously expensive clothes in expensive materials.... Continue Reading →

I feel the need for some posting about random everyday trivia. Today's topic is one that has intrigued me for some time. My walk to work involves a short trip from Green Park, and I pass exclusive hotels, estate agents advertising second homes in France for 3 million euros, and a number of apparently residential... Continue Reading →

So many things occupy my thoughts every day. So many trivial thoughts of moving money between accounts, getting the shopping done, paying the gardener, servicing the car, have I paid the deposit on whatever activity I've got coming up, I forgot to move that Hong Kong call to accommodate the trip to Paris, I hope... Continue Reading →

My father died on the 17th June, 2017. He probably would have quite liked that, a palindromic date. He died in Berlin, on the day of a riot against communist rule in 1953. It's the sort of date people like to choose for weddings. He will be buried on the 7th July, which also has... Continue Reading →

I wrote some time ago that my new Surface was irritating and I didn't understand the hype. THis statement now somewhat reminds me of the venture capitalist I worked for in 1999, who was talking about how he wouldn't take any IPO shares in Google because they were way overpriced. "What's the point of Google,... Continue Reading →

I was reading about the St Petersburg metro bombings, and the woman that died shielding her daughter from the blast, and it made me so sad. It's what absolutely every parent would do, and I don't have any doubt in my mind at all that I would gladly die to save my children. Most people... Continue Reading →

Agility is a good thing, no doubt, and the Agile Manifesto isn’t unreasonable. Compared to a straw-man practice called “Waterfall”, Agile is notably superior. Yet, so much of Agile as-practiced is deeply harmful, and I don’t really think that the Agile/Waterfall dichotomy is useful in the first place.

There’s a variety of Agile, called Scrum, that I’ve seen actually kill a company. By “kill”, I don’t mean “the culture wasn’t as good afterward”. Rather, I mean that its stock dropped by almost 90 percent in less than two years.

What is Agile?

Agile grew up in web consulting, where it had a certain amount of value: when dealing with finicky clients who don’t know what they want, one typically has to choose between one of two options. The first is to manage the client: get expectations set, charge appropriately for rework, and maintain a relationship of equality rather than submission…

After a day of family stuff, got an impromptu offer of babysitting. Booked tickets for the Odeon online at 5 pm , for an 8.15 pm showing. Ghost in the Shell, which we were hoping to catch, but had assumed we'd probably miss it and get it on streaming in about 6 months. We got... Continue Reading →

I had a call with Hong Kong yesterday morning. They had been rather chippy about someone in my team being "too direct", so I was making an effort with the niceties, wishing them a happy new year of the rooster. I have no idea about the Chinese zodiac, so I looked it up. There was... Continue Reading →